Laboratory-scale simulation and real-time tracking of a microbial contamination event and subsequent shock-chlorination in drinking water

Rapid contamination of drinking water in distribution and storage systems can occur due to pressure drop, backflow, cross-connections, accidents, and bio-terrorism. Small volumes of a concentrated contaminant (e.g., wastewater) can contaminate large volumes of water in a very short time with potentially severe negative health impacts. The technical limitations of conventional, cultivation-based microbial detection methods neither allow for timely detection of such contaminations, nor for the real-time monitoring of subsequent emergency remediation measures (e.g., shock-chlorination). Here we applied a newly developed continuous, ultra high-frequency flow cytometry approach to track a rapid pollution event and subsequent disinfection of drinking water in an 80-min laboratory scale simulation. We quantified total (TCC) and intact (ICC) cell concentrations as well as flow cytometric fingerprints in parallel in real-time with two different staining methods. The ingress of wastewater was detectable almost immediately (i.e., after 0.6% volume change), significantly changing TCC, ICC, and the flow cytometric fingerprint. Shock chlorination was rapid and detected in real time, causing membrane damage in the vast majority of bacteria (i.e., drop of ICC from more than 380 cells mu l(-1) to less than 30 cells mu l(-1) within 4 min). Both of these effects as well as the final wash-in of fresh tap water followed calculated predictions well. Detailed and highly quantitative tracking of microbial dynamics at very short time scales and for different characteristics (e.g., concentration, membrane integrity) is feasible. This opens up multiple possibilities for targeted investigation of a myriad of bacterial short-term dynamics (e.g., disinfection, growth, detachment, operational changes) both in laboratory-scale research and full-scale system investigations in practice

Forward--Backward Asymmetry in B -> X_s l^+ l^- at the NNLL Level

We report the results of a new calculation of soft-gluon corrections in B -> X_s l^+ l^- decays. In particular, we present the first calculation of bremsstrahlung and corresponding virtual terms to the lepton forward-backward asymmetry, which allows us to systematically include all contributions to this observable beyond the lowest non-trivial order. The new terms are important, for instance the position of the zero of the asymmetry receives corrections of O(10%). Using a different method, we also provide an independent check of recently published results on bremsstrahlung and infrared virtual corrections to the dilepton-invariant mass distribution.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures. v2: typo in (4.26) corrected; discussion on mu-dependence modifie

On the possibility of a very light A^0 at low \tan\beta

The searches at LEP II for the processes e^+e^-\to h^0Z and e^+e^-\to h^0A^0 in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) fail to exclude regions of the m_h,m_A plane where \tan\beta <1, thus allowing a very light A^0 (m_A< 20 GeV). Such a parameter choice would predict a light H^\pm with m_{H^\pm}< m_W. Although the potentially large branching ratio for H^\pm \to A^0 W^* would ensure that H^\pm also escaped detection in direct searches at LEP II and the Tevatron Run I, we show that this elusive parameter space is overwhelmingly disfavoured by electroweak precision measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, Revtex, references added, minor additions to tex

Supersymmetric contributions to B -> D K and the determination of angle \gamma

We analyze supersymmetric contributions to B^- -> D^0 K^- and B^- ->\bar{D}^0 K^- processes. We investigate the possibility that supersymmetric CP violating phases can affect our determination for the angle \gamma in the unitary triangle of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskaw mixing matrix. We calculate the gluino and chargino contributions to b--> u(\bar{c}s) and b-->c(\bar{u}s) transitions in a model independent way by using the mass insertion approximation method. We also revise the D^0 - \bar{D}^0 mixing constraints on the mass insertions between the first and second generations of the up sector. We emphasize that in case of negligible D^0 -\bar{D}^0 mixing, one should consider simultaneous contributions from more than one mass insertion in order to be able to obtain the CP asymmetries of these processes within their 1\sigma experimental range. However, with a large D^0-\bar{D}^0 mixing, one finds a significant deviation between the two asymmetries and it becomes natural to have them of order the central values of their experimental measurements.Comment: 20 page

NNLL QCD Corrections to the Decay B→Xsℓ+ℓ−B \to X_s \ell^+ \ell^-

We briefly discuss the status of the NNLL QCD calculations in the inclusive rare B decay $B \to X_s \ell^+ \ell^-$. Two important ingredients, the two-loop matrix elements of the four quark operator ${\cal O}_2$ and the bremsstrahlung contributions, were quite recently finalised. The new contributions significantly improve the sensitivity of the inclusive decay $B \to X_s l^+ l^-$ decay in testing extensions of the standard model in the sector of flavour dynamics; for instance the two-loop calculation cuts the low- scale uncertainty in half and the bremsstrahlung calculation leads to a 10% shift of the position of the zero of the forward- backward asymmetry.Comment: 7 pages, latex, 5 figures, references adde

Alternative Approach to B−→η′K−B^- \to \eta^{\prime} K^- Branching Ratio Calculation

Since the calculation of $BR(B^- \to \eta^{\prime} K^-)$ in the framework of QCD improved factorization method, developed by Beneke et al., leads to numerical values much below the experimental data, we include two different contributions, in an alternative way. First, we find out that the spectator hard-scattering mechanism increases the $BR$ value with almost 50%, but the predictions depend on the combined singularities in the amplitude convolution. Secondly, by adding SUSY contributions to the Wilson coefficients, we come to a $BR$ depending on three parameters, whose values are constrained by the experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 2 Postscript figure

B decays and Supersymmetry

I discuss how supersymmetry affects various observables in B decays, and point out the interesting channels in the context of B factories.Comment: LaTex file of working group talk presented at WHEPP-7, HRI, Allahabad, Jan. 200

Calculation of two-loop virtual corrections to b --> s l+ l- in the standard model

We present in detail the calculation of the virtual O(alpha_s) corrections to the inclusive semi-leptonic rare decay b --> s l+ l-. We also include those O(alpha_s) bremsstrahlung contributions which cancel the infrared and mass singularities showing up in the virtual corrections. In order to avoid large resonant contributions, we restrict the invariant mass squared s of the lepton pair to the range 0.05 < s/mb^2 < 0.25. The analytic results are represented as expansions in the small parameters s/mb^2, z = mc^2/mb^2 and s/(4 mc^2). The new contributions drastically reduce the renormalization scale dependence of the decay spectrum. For the corresponding branching ratio (restricted to the above s-range) the renormalization scale uncertainty gets reduced from +/-13% to +/-6.5%.Comment: 41 pages including 9 postscript figures; in version 2 some typos and inconsistent notation correcte

NNLL QCD Contribution of the Electromagnetic Dipole Operator to Gamma(anti-B -> X(s) gamma)

We present an independent calculation of that part of the O(\alpha_s^2) contribution to the decay width \Gamma(\bar B -> X_s \gamma) which arises from the self-interference term of the electromagnetic dipole operator O_7. Using a different method, we find complete agreement with a previous calculation. This NNLL contribution is an important ingredient for the complete NNLL prediction of \Gamma(\bar B -> X_s \gamma) which will resolve the charm quark mass ambiguity appearing at NLL accuracy.Comment: 15 pages, uses axodraw.st